Conventional methods for determining costs of motor vehicle insurance involve gathering relevant historical data from a personal interview with, or a written application completed by, the applicant for the insurance and by referencing the applicant's public motor vehicle driving record that is maintained by a governmental agency, such as a Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Such data results in a classification of the applicant to a broad actuarial class for which insurance rates are assigned based upon the empirical experience of the insurer. Many factors are deemed relevant to such classification in a particular actuarial class or risk level, such as age, sex, marital status, location of residence and driving record.
The current system of insurance creates groupings of vehicles and drivers (actuarial classes) based on the following types of classifications.
Vehicle:                Age;        manufacturer, model; and        value.        
Driver:                Age;        sex;        marital status;        
driving record (based on government reports), violations (citations);                at fault accidents; and        place of residence.        
Coverage:                Types of losses covered,                    liability,            uninsured or underinsured motorist,            comprehensive, and            collision;                        liability limits; and        deductibles.        
The classifications, such as age, are further broken into actuarial classes, such as 21 to 24, to develop a unique vehicle insurance cost based on the specific combination of attributes for a particular risk. For example, the following information would produce a unique vehicle insurance cost:
Vehicle:
Age1997 (seven years old)manufacturer, modelFord, Explorer XLTvalue$18,000Driver:
Age38 years oldsexmalemarital statussingledriving record (based ongovernment reports)violations1 point (speeding)at fault accidents3 points (one at fault accident)place of residence33619 (zip code)Coverage:
Types of losses coveredliabilityyesuninsured or underinsurednomotoristcomprehensiveyescollisionyesliability limits$100,000/$300,000/$50,000deductibles$500/$500
A change to any of this information might result in a different premium being charged, if the change resulted in a different actuarial class or risk level for that variable. For instance, a change in the drivers' age from 38 to 39 may not result in a different actuarial class, because 38 and 39 year old people may be in the same actuarial class. However, a change in driver age from 38 to 45 may result in a different premium because the records of the insurer indicate a difference in risk associated with those ages and, therefore, the age difference results in a change in actuarial class or assigned risk level.
Current insurance rating systems also provide discounts and surcharges for some types of use of the vehicle, equipment on the vehicle and type of driver. Common surcharges and discounts include:
Surcharges:
Business use.
Discounts:
Safety equipment on the vehicle                airbags, and        antilock brakes;        
theft control devices                passive systems (e.g. “The Club”), an        alarm system; and        
driver type                good student, and        safe driver (accident free).        
group                senior drivers        fleet drivers        
A principal problem with such conventional insurance determination systems is that much of the data gathered from the applicant in the interview or from the written application is not verifiable, and even existing public records contain only minimal information, much of which has little relevance towards an assessment of the likelihood of a claim subsequently occurring. In other words, current rating systems are primarily based on past realized losses and the past record of other drivers with similar characteristics. None of the data obtained through conventional systems necessarily reliably predicts the manner or safety of future operation of the vehicle by the driver/applicant. Accordingly, the limited amount of accumulated relevant data and its minimal evidential value towards computation of a fair cost of insurance has generated a long-felt need for an improved system for more reliably and accurately accumulating data having a highly relevant evidential value towards predicting the actual manner of a vehicle's future operation by a specific driver or group of drivers.
Many types of vehicle operating data recording systems have heretofore been suggested for purposes of obtaining an accurate record of certain elements of vehicle operation. Some are suggested for identifying the cause for an accident; others are for more accurately assessing the efficiency of operation and/or environmental emissions of a vehicle. Such systems disclose a variety of conventional techniques for recording vehicle operation data elements in a variety of data recording systems. It has even been suggested to detect and record seatbelt usage to assist in determination of the vehicle insurance costs (U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,336).
The various forms and types of vehicle operating data acquisition and recordal systems that have heretofore been suggested and employed have met with varying degrees of success for their express limited purposes. All possess substantial defects such that they have only limited economic and practical value for a system intended to provide an enhanced acquisition, recordal and/or communication system of data which would be both comprehensive and reliable in predicting an accurate and adequate cost of insurance for the vehicle. Since the type of operating information acquired and recorded in prior art systems was generally never intended to be used for determining the cost of vehicle insurance, the data elements that were monitored and recorded therein were not directly related to predetermined safety standards or the determining of an actuarial class or risk level for the vehicle operator. For example, recording data characteristics relevant to the vehicle's exhaust emissions may be completely unrelated to the safety of operation of the vehicle. Further, there is the problem of recording and subsequently compiling the relevant data for an accurate determination of an actuarial profile and an appropriate insurance cost therefor.
Current motor vehicle control and operating systems comprise electronic systems readily adaptable for modification to obtain the desired types of information relevant to determination of the cost of insurance. Vehicle tracking systems have been suggested which use communication links with satellite navigation systems for providing information describing a vehicle's location based upon navigation signals. When such positioning information is combined with maps or geographic information in an expert system, vehicle location is ascertainable. Mere vehicle location, though, will not provide data particularly relevant to safety of operation unless the data is combined with other relevant data in an expert system which is capable of assessing whether the roads being driven are high-risk or low-risk with regard to vehicle safety.
On-line Web sites for marketing and selling goods have become common place. Many insurers offer communication services to customers via Web sites relevant to an insured profile and account status. Commonly assigned pending application U.S. Ser. No. 09/135,034, filed Aug. 17, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,970, discloses one such system. Customer comfort with such Web site communication has generated the need for systems which can provide even more useful information to customers relative to a customer's contract with the insurer. Such enhanced communications can be particularly useful to an insured when the subject of the communications relates to cost determination, or when the subject relates to prospective reoccurring insurable events wherein the system can relate in the existing insured's profile with some insurer-provided estimates to the effect that a future event or method of operating a unit of risk would have on an estimated cost of insuring the unit of risk.
The present invention contemplates a new and improved monitoring, recording, processing and communicating system for an insured unit of risk, such as a machine, which primarily overcomes the problem of accurately determining cost of insurance based upon data which does not take into consideration how a specific unit of risk or machine is operated or decisions made by a particular unit of risk owner or operator. The subject invention will base insurance charges with regard to current material data representative of actual decisions made by the operator and/or operating characteristics to provide a more precise classification rating of an operator or the unit in an actuarial class which has a vastly reduced rating error over conventional insurance cost systems. Additionally, the present invention allows for frequent (e.g., monthly, quarterly, semiannually, etc.) adjustment to the cost of insurance because of the changes in operating behavior patterns. This can result in insurance charges that are readily controllable by individual operators. The system is adaptable to current electronic operating systems, tracking systems and communicating systems for the improved extraction of selected insurance related data. In addition, the system provides for enhanced and improved communication and analysis of the relevant acquired data, cost estimates of insuring events and customer insured profiles through a personal computer and/or Internet/Web site.
Another deficiency in prior art systems is that such systems were never intended to allow the operator to control whether to submit to the insurer the data elements monitored and recorded from the vehicle or machine. The system solves this problem by providing the means for the operator to control the submission of information to the insurer and by allowing the operator to understand how modifying operational behavior affects the cost of insurance.